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Luke 21:34-36

The Word of God

Jesus said to the disciples, "Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Some thoughts on today's scripture

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That’s a curious phrase but it fits: weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness. Drink is a narcotic; it does in fact dull the heart and blunt the appetites. As for dissipation, while it may be sold as fun and having a laugh, on the morning after most would agree with Nietzsche that the mother of dissipation is not joy but joylessness. Joy and moderation go hand in hand. When our hearts are happy, our own skins are a good place to be; we do not need to be blown out of our minds by alcohol or other drugs.

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The 14th century mystic, Eckhart, tells us that the Word of God is spoken continually in our soul. But where are we? He says bluntly: ‘God is with us in our inmost soul, provided he finds us within and not gone out on business’. We so often use our five senses to anaesthetize our souls, to blunt reality. But when we run away from ourselves, we are running away from the wonder at the heart of our being.

We worry about so many things, but as the Lord told Martha, only one thing is needed, a life-giving relationship with God.

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The first Christians had a hard time of it, through persecution, poverty and political turmoil. I ask them to help me when things are hard. I ask Jesus to give me more faith, hope and love, so that I may not get lost in daily distractions.

‘To be alert at all times’ means to keep my eyes on Jesus. The Sacred Space community tries to do that daily, and so becomes a blessing for a heedless world. Those who pray hold the world together, Pope Benedict says.

Some thoughts on today's scripture

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Amid the worries of my daily life, 'eternal truths' can seem irrelevant or
unreal. But Jesus reminds me here not to be weighed down and completely
preoccupied by the immediate, concrete, here-and-now part of reality. A good
question to focus my mind on is: "What do I want to be remembered for when I
die?"